When we woke up this morning, the sun was glinting through the trees! After last night’s 50kph wind and rain, a glimmer of hope for the day! But the sun was soon shrouded behind clouds and mist and rain once again and we went back to bed for a bit.

By the time we decided that we couldn’t sit the weather out all day, it was 10am and we went for breakfast, packed up, sorted the bikes out and headed out in search of a shop in the drizzle. When we got to the shops, it was pouring down again and after getting supplies, we sat under the awning of the bakery and ate chocolate biscuits with jam waiting for the weather to improve.

At midday the downpour lessened to just rain and we set off in our waterproofs to sweat up the hill. We were leaving the valley we spent the day in yesterday to head into the mountains. We had 900m of climbing to do over 20km and Dave was worried that we’d need all day on it like when we were in the Picos. But as we started the climb, we were doing around 10kph… was the tough bit still to come?

We rode up out of town, past the usual mix of nice houses and semi-ruins, all with veggie patches and a few chickens – and lots of grape vines in this region! The clouds were lifting slightly and we could see the green valley below, Spanish villages stretched out on the north side of the river, Portuguese ones on the south side.

As we left the outskirts of town, the rain stopped and we took off our jackets and steamed under the dripping trees. The forest was lush and green, a mixture of conifers and deciduous trees with lots of oaks, their newly opened leaves bright and wet. We rode gently up between the trunks, across babbling streams, past rocky outcrops, purple heather and flowering gorse. The higher we got, the more spectacular the views of the valleys and of the clouds. The ever-changing weather gave us views of mountain peaks, then hid them from us, rained for a bit before bringing them back into view. There were lots of wind turbines on the hills, occasional villages, some small fields of sheep, areas of burned hillside and quite a few power lines. Not exactly wilderness but it was very beautiful.

At one viewpoint, we could see lots of barren hillsides stretched out below, nothing but heather and gorse except for the trees in the v-shaped valleys along the streams. The sun came out for a little bit and felt deliciously warm. Then the wind brought more clouds and wet set off again to warm up.

There wasn’t much traffic today but there were a lot of goats! There was a herder at work gathering his flock and they were spilling out onto the road. We inadvertently herded them ourselves as we rode past.

We really enjoyed the ride today, it was chilled out and the weather was pretty decent compared to how it has been! We only did 20km in the end and it didn’t take as long as we expected, but the next campsite is a long way away, so we pitched up in Lamas de Mouro for the night, just within the boundary of the national park, where we’re going to be riding for the next few days. It rained on and off this evening (pretty sure we’re going to be putting on still-wet laundry in the morning!) but it’s stopped for now and the forecast for tomorrow looks brighter.

– Anna

I decided to try and get a bit arty with the rain shots outside the hostel this morning since I have so much to practice on.

We headed southeast out of town on the PO-510. We hadn’t been on a PO road before, and we assumed it would be pretty quiet. It turns out that PO roads are not always quiet but they are relatively badly maintained. When it turned out there was no hard shoulder to ride on, Anna resorted to riding in the gutter. She is convinced that to ride on the road means death.

We stopped for lunch in a town called Salceda, where I was tempted once more by a massive empanada. I hope they have empanada in Portugal!

We went past a quarry where they had quarried out all the earth except the bits around the telegraph poles, which were proudly standing even taller than usual on the devastated landscape. It was comical. Not the devastation obviously.

The roads were even more broom-endowed than usual. The rain was on-off and everything smelled amazing in between showers. It was a really lovely ride except the constant threat of saturation, either frown rain or sweat-filled waterproofs.

We did a bit of climbing and eventually found ourselves on a ridge looking down into the valley of the River Mino, which forms the Spain / Portugal border. And what did we see on the Portugal side? SUNSHINE!!!!

We whizzed down the valley and headed towards the town of Arbo, the last one before the border. On the way we went past loads of crosses at the side of the road that looked like memorials, with people’s names on them. There was also a little fenced off graveyard bit, along with a tiny coffin. Were were a bit confused at the time; it turns out it’s part of a protest against a new high-voltage electricity line that will pass through the area.

We went through Arbo pretty quickly, keen to get into Portugal, where we assumed it would be sunny and hot. The River Mino did not encourage us though, it looks like there could be several small villages submerged under it’s swollen course right now! And sadly the rain did not stop at the border. Boo!

The campsite was just over the border. Anna navigated us there like a pro, sadly it was all for naught as they are shut until the 9th May. Doh! The chaps there directed us to the youth hostel, which was a 20 minute ride away up another rainy hill. When we got here we thought it was a hotel, but sure enough we have been given our own 4-bed dorm, and hopefully no-one else will turn up so right now things are looking good. It was twice the price of the Camino hostels, but if we get a snore-free sleep tonight it will be worth it!

– Dave

The hostel last night was busy as usual and the little room we were in had about 20 people sleeping in it.  The problem last night was that about 5 of those people were heavy snorers!  So after getting to sleep late because we were next to the kitchen which was full of chattering Italians until midnight, I woke to the pre-dawn snoring chorus at 4am and never got back to sleep.  At 6am I resigned myself to getting up early and packed up and got breakfast ready for when Dave grumpily dragged himself out of bed (after I shone a torch in his general direction during the packing up operation – oops!).

So having ridden in the rain all day yesterday and listened to the rain all night, we breakfasted watching the rain outside before we had to go out in it.

We had a nice ride to do today but the weather was absolutely rank.  Dave was still grumpy despite the quiet roads I was navigating us on and rode straight past a junction where we were supposed to turn off.  My shouts and rings were carried off on the wind and I made a little news video whilst I waited for him to return (slightly more grumpy for his extra little jaunt).

It was a lovely road up through the forest and we rode slowly uphill, getting wetter and wetter and wetter.  There was no traffic though, and the forest smelled lovely.  Some parked trucks had sprigs of flowering broom on them.  We’ve seen quite a few of these on houses, shops and vehicles, but haven’t yet found out why it’s customary.

After our long uphill, we whizzed all the way down again, wearing down our new brake pads.

Then our 15km on the lovely quiet roads came to and end and we rejoined the N-550 towards O Porrino, still in the pissing rain.  There wasn’t that much traffic, but the wet roads always make passing vehicles louder and less pleasant.

We stopped for first lunch in a bus shelter by the roadside, had cheese sandwiches and some banter, which seemed to lift Dave’s mood.  After food, we had to put our soggy gloves and hats back on before setting off – elch!

Then we were riding along the coast, and I think the views were nice…

Then there was more up and down, more rain, more rain and more rain until we arrived in O Porrino and found the hostel there… which didn’t open for another 3 hours.  Stupid early start.  But we decided to make good use of our time and had second lunch before heading off in search of a launderette.

We asked a local lady for directions.  She didn’t know, but she asked someone else, before walking with us as far as she knew, then asked someone else for us and walking with us a bit more, then offering to walk us the rest of the way!  But we just asked to be pointed in the right direction and thanked her for her trouble.  How nice!  Definitely wouldn’t get that sort of service in London!  Of course, having denied her further help, we then had to ask two more people on the next street for further direction, but we did find it!  Oh, and it was a glorious launderette.  We’ve been doing laundry by hand when it’s sunny and suffering when it isn’t.  Even the hostels that have washing machines tend to have ones that make your clothes smell worse than if they hadn’t been washed!  So we stuck everything in except what we had on and waited for it all to be washed and dried.

Whilst we were in the launderette, the sun had the cheek to come out from behind the clouds!  Thankfully it stayed out long enough for us to get back to the hostel, where we checked in, showered, had third lunch and cleaned the bikes.  Then it was time to find a bar for drinks and some wifi – what an afternoon of luxury post-ride!  Ahh.

Tomorrow we head east and enter Portugal!  Then it’s into the mountains we go…. here’s to some better weather….

– Anna

Today has been a busy day! We were chatting to a guy in the hostel last night and he recommended that we follow the Camino Portugues down into Portugal. It sounded like a good idea so we decided to go for it. Before leaving Santiago this morning however we had some tasks to complete. The first thing for me was a wet ride to the Decathlon outdoors store to get some waterproof hiking shoes. I’ve had enough of Anna complaining that her feet are too hot while mine have gone numb from cold and wrinkly from water ingress! The second task was a bit sad, we decided to send our climbing gear home. It was awesome being able to go climbing with Silvia and Carlos that first week, but it’s so heavy and it’s just dead weight most of the time. So Anna went in to do battle with the Spanish postal system for half an hour while I hung around outside reading. Seemed fair!

We finally got out of Santiago about 12. It was raining obviously.

We were glad to be back on the road and feeling like we were getting somewhere, but the weather is meant to be awful all week and it was a tough re-introduction! Sideways rain to the face all morning! But my feet were so warm and dry! I even managed to devise a system to stop the raining running off my waterproof trousers into my shoes. Happy days – Galicia holds no fears for me now.

We headed up and down over hill and vale for most of the afternoon, stopping for drippy first lunch in a churchyard and drippy second lunch in a “picnic area” by the side of the road that contained only a bin. No benches or anything. It was the worst picnic area. Anna was displeased.

Sometime in the afternoon I heard a horrible crunching noise from the back wheel. I pulled over to find that one of the bungee cords securing the tent to my pannier rack had caught a spoke and got dragged into the back gears. Thankfully the bungee cord snapped before it damaged the gears, and I escaped with a bent mudguard. That could have been a lot worse!

We were on the main road for the rest of the afternoon until we reached Pontevedre. There was an impressive viaduct, and the road cuttings were full of flowering broom, which helped to keep our spirits up.

We hadn’t really researched hostels in Pontevedra. This is always an error. You think you’ll just find one when you turn up, then by the time you get there you’re starving and tired and just want to have a shower and some food. So we spent 20 minutes looking for a hostel all the way through town and out the other side. Then just when things were looking bleak we asked a local guy who said “Yes, there’s one just behind you”. And there was, hurrah! We missed it because the signs were for people coming into town, not out.

So the day ended happily with hot showers, tasty pasta and an evening stroll into town where we procured food for tomorrow including pic’n’mix. Mmmmmm! Pontevedro seems like a really cool town, bustling and lively and with some pretty architecture. It’s a shame we didn’t get to explore it more, but that seems to be the way at the moment. Maybe we need to budget time for seeing places instead of just getting to them…

– Dave

We decided to spend our two days in Santiago doing one day of chores and one day of sightseeing, but it didn’t quite end up working out that way. Our chore day yesterday went pretty well and, among other things, we replaced all the brake blocks on the bikes because we’d worn them clean through coming down those mountains in the rain!

We also reorganised our kit yesterday and decided to send the 9 kg of climbing gear home.  Dave has been lugging it around and although we’re both chuffed that we used it with Carlos and Silvia, we decided that enough is enough and it’s going back.  Dave has a bit of a swollen ankle, so it’s probably for the best!  Hopefully his ankle will get better and will be the only injury of the trip.  I thought I was getting a horrible disease of the hands a few days ago but it’s just chilblains, which are almost healed now – need to make sure I put my gloves on when zooming downhill!

Today we wanted to go to the shops to stock up on food and Dave wanted to replace his shoes. But alas, it was May Day festivos and everything was closed except the bakeries! So we bought some bread and cheese, had first lunch and did some route planning before heading to the cathedral.

Santiago de Compostela is a beautiful city, although we’ve heard (and seen!) that it is one of the rainiest in Europe. The old centre of town has wonderful stone buildings and spires and fountains, as well as thousands and thousands of tourists, even on a festivos day!

In the cathedral we looked at the big incense burner, golden altar, giant organ, shrines, confession boxes and the large queue of people waiting to hug the apostle.  The huge incense burner sometimes gets swung by its huge rope, almost to the ceiling at either end of the church, it’s quite a spectacle.  Apparently it was originally done to mask the scent of the camino pilgrims, it is now done primarily as a tourist attraction.  We missed it swinging today, but met someone who had filmed it and watched his footage that was complete with the sound of children squealing in a mixture of fear and delight at the burner whizzing over their heads!

This evening, we headed back to the hostel for dinner (more bread and cheese) and evening hangouts with the other hostel inmates.  Our route for the next week has been under debate, but we’ve heard that the Portuguese route of the Camino trail south of here is beautiful and cycle-friendly, so we may go south for a few days before we head inland towards the Faia Brava Reserve, where we should arrive in about a week.

– Anna